Pacifists
by Crocodilefan
Summary: This is a section from my personal selfinsert powerfulfillment fic called 'The Alchemist Chronicles'. It takes place in a multiverse setting where various heroes from various settings have united to fight against injustices, and stop the destruction of the entire multiverse. I've decided to upload it in pieces which may not be in order. Sorry to confuse anyone who actually reads it
1. Subjects Arrival

"They've arrived, elder Joshua', said the younger scribe.

"Good, have test subject 43658 sent to Balgruuf Hall 321, and test subject 436757 to 323", Alan replied not even looking up from his clipboard.

"There's one more thing, test subject 43009, has come back, he wishes to speak with you.", she sounded worried, however could not remember off the top of his head why that number might frighten someone, the paladin behind him however spoke up"

"Wait, that was one of Moxxi's experiments, from last year's uplift project. The thing's not even a year old, and it's already back", said Fex.

"If I recall, time dilation in the place we sent it was close to half speed, for him it's been 22 months.", Alan answered.

"Did he say why he wanted to speak to the Elder?", Fex asked the scribe, but she shook her head.

"Well if he wants to join Alco, I'd definitely allow it, reminds me I need to check in how far we are from deathclaw power armor", then cyborg jotted a note down on his clipboard. Fex glanced over his shoulder as subtly as he could, and saw that most of the notes on his keyboard consisted of things such as 'pretend to write things', 'pretend what's on this clipboard is important', 'try to look leadery', and the like.

"Hey what's the time dilation ratio for Pandora to the Nirn?", Fex asked the scribe.

It's 1:1 just like here, and Roanapur," she affirmed.

"That means that the other gem could be finished any day now, should we wait and do their orientations together?", Fex asked the Alchemist.

"No, I wanna try to get a feel for how each of them is on their own, I'll talk to them each individually, and send 43009….did he say his name?", Alan asked.

"Nero", she said.

"I…do not like that name, send him to the room between then, have a paladin escort him, come on Fex, we'll start orientation with the first one". The Alchemist and the Paladin, left the dome, and headed toward Balgruuf hall.


	2. Stahlrim

The cyborg and the paladin entered into the lounge, to see a girl sitting at the table. She was about 5 foot tall, her skin a light blue, and her eyes a light grey. On her collarbone, was a white-blue gem in a heart-cut. Her attire consisted of navy blue coat, topped in a hood that appeared at first glance, to be insulated with white fur, the same color as her hair, that once the two had entered the room, she lowered to reveal a short ponytail.

"Cold?", asked the cyborg, the two taking a seat across from the girl.

"No, it was cold where I was this morning, but now it's not, what is this place?", she asked cheerily.

"This is a science facility know as Big Mountain, I'm in charge, people call me 'The Alchemist'", Alan answered.

"If it's called mountain, why is it a crater, and what do you guys want with me?", her tone was quizzical, not afraid.

"I know you have a lot of questions, let me start from the beginning, you aren't from here, you're not even from this universal plane, you were born 11 hours ago, Happy Birthday, on the island of Solstheim, the ground you emerged from was once a Nordic burial site, but the majority of the Nords left Solstheim, leaving only the Skall, they were the people you say when you emerged", he said. Despite the one on her left doing the talking she found herself staring at the one on her left, perplexed by his helmet, she couldn't see his face, couldn't tell what her was thinking or feeling, it only made her more curious. Without warning he fell over toppling out of his chair.

"I'M AWAKE, I'm awake!", Fex affirmed, Alan shot him grimace.

"As I was saying, you birth was part of a trial on behalf of Alco and the Big Mountain Brotherhood of Steel, I sort of lead both of them, you are a descendent of a powerful race know as gems, a race that in born of the earth through a process of absorbing what is in the ground of the injection site. The gems came to an alternate earth and attempted to colonize at the expense of the planet's current inhabitants, but were driven off by an environmentalist group. Their tech remained, so the Brotherhood decided to attempt a revitalized small scale growth experiment in soils that weren't present in that universe. You were born on Solstheim, and according to the historical naming conventions of your people, your name is Stahlrim, for that is your gem.

"Stahlrim", she repeated.

"Have you summoned your weapon yet?", he asked.

"This?", she asked, a stahlrim battle-axe appeared in her hands as beam of light emanated from her gem.

"Whoa", Fex was astonished, while the cyborg raised only an eyebrow.

"May I?", he asked, and she semi-reluctantly handed her axe over to him, "It's very similar to Skaal craftsmanship, you took more than just materials out of that earth"

"Those people were nice, I hope I get to see them again soon", she said still smiling.

"You will be protecting them, we are in dire need of your help, there are dark forces out there that would use the rifts as a way to bring death to many worlds. Our job is to stop them."

"But how?" , she asked.

His response was to hand her back the axe, "How else?", her face turned to shock and horror, but he didn't take notice, "We have training grounds on Roanapur where you and you fellow gem can start"

"NO", she cut him off, tears beginning to form on her face, "I won't kill anyone, how can I take life, when I've just begun to appreciate what it means to be alive?" This was not the response that he was expecting, gems were supposed to be warriors, they had abilities beyond most organic races and they're born pre-armed, so the idea of pacifism in a gem had not occurred to him.

"So that's a no then?", this came from Fex who was getting up to leave, "where do we go from here?", he asked his superior. Alan just got up and left the room.


	3. Soul Gem

"Well that was a bust", Alan said dismayed, leaning his head against the wall.

"I don't think so", said Fex, placing a hand on the Alchemist's shoulder.

"How do you figure?", he asked.

"Well, even I she doesn't want to join the Brotherhood, Alco, or even the Vox, the experiment was still a success, we used ancient technology to produce a viable gem warrior, unlike any that has ever been introduced, and you're about to meet the physical manifestation of a soul gem, and you're one of most foremost experts on applied soul gem research. I actually really enjoyed your paper on soul stone conservation.", he said beaming excitedly.

"Wow, I'm surprised you read my paper, most of our Brotherhood comrades hold little interest in the science of magic, thank you, you're right the experiment was still a success, regardless of what happens now. You know, why don't you take care of the other orientation, while I interview the other gem? You should do fine.", and with that Alan opened the door and stepped into the room.

Fex ripped out his scroll the second the door closed, he felt the need to text his girlfriend, Jaqueline, what had just happened.

 _Guess who's senpai just noticed him?_

 _Just got put in charge of Deathclaw orientation no biggie_

 _Noice!_

 _Sounds like fun._

 _I hope this assignment lasts all night_

 _Is that so? Cause I was hoping, you could help_

 _with some basic maintenance_

Her response was followed by a wrench emoji and a winking face, and Fex began to sweat inside his armor.

Alan opened the door to the lounge, and saw that she was already seated at the lounge table an untouched cup of hot tea in front of her. She was on the shorter side, approximately four foot, seven inches. Her skin was a light earthy violet, her light green hair in a short bob, and her irises were a ruby red, not unlike the soul gems the ancient Dwemer used in their automatons. Her attire consisted of a sky blue robe.

"Do you drink tea?", he asked, "Not many gems enjoy consuming".

"It's for you, do you drink tea?", she questioned, "Not many cyborgs need to or even can eat"

"I do in fact, thank you", he said taking the cup, "Today is your first day of life, how has it been so far?"

"I don't actually have anything to compare it to, though; the place I woke up had a certain… hostile vibe",

"That was the soul cairn, one of the Oblivion planes, it is home of the Ideal Masters, the creators of soul gems, and you are a very special soul gem", he explained.

"I already know of the gems, and the history they have, the Brotherhood robot that escorted me here explained", she said, "What I want to know about are these rifts"

"The rifts are gateways between universes; they are not unlike tears in the fabric of reality. Originally we could only travel them one at a time, finding them by accident, and not always being able to go back the way you came. Then we found Franchia, land of arches. It soon became clear that Franchia was a hub and each arch was a separate rift. The rifts are invisible at first, one cannot interact with a rift without prior experience. It's like a muscle the more you interact with them the easier it becomes." This was clearly not the first time he had explained the subject

"If you can't use them without having prior experience, how did you first travel though them?", she asked. Not many picked up on the dissonance.

"I was for lack of a better term, pulled through", It was clear that he didn't wish to continue with that subject, "Did you know that at the College of Winterhold there are six traditional schools of magic for one to study, seven if you count the Thu'um and alchemy. Everybody picks one to major in and they try to be the best at that school."

"And you choose alchemy?", she asked.

"You would assume, given my name, but no, I didn't pick any of them, I chose to study daedric artifacts, specifically soul gems. I mastered use of soul gems for conjuration, and space conservation, being able to trap larger souls in smaller gems. I recovered lost dwemer gem production and programming techniques. I found a way around removing your soul to travel to the Soul Carin, and I found a way to use a soul gem for recharging artifacts, without wasting the soul. All of these advancement of course, greatly angered the Ideal Masters. I changed the way mages all throughout Nirn thought of soul gems, and yet something brand new is right in front of me", then laid his right arm, his robotic one, out on the table

"I don't even know how to respond to that, I feel like it was supposed to be flattering", she said dryly.

"I just want you to know where I'm coming from and how significant this is", he used his left hand and began prying on the panel on his left arm, His arm was grey and silver, but this 3X5 inch panel just below the elbow appeared to have a coppery gold color, it finally popped open, revealing a circuit board beneath, it came out with a snap. The circuit board looked almost average, green with wires and other gismos attached, but it also had approximately twenty or so red gems, half the size of a dime, "each of these holds a soul, a creature I vanquished and can now call upon to fight by my side. My body is a combination of both science and Magic, and _that_ is why I am called The Alchemist", she sat silently starring at the circuit board, contemplating if those red crystals were really the same as her, while also wondering what sort of souls they held. "Where is your gem, by the way?", he asked.

She extended her right arm and laid it out on the table as her had. Below her wrist was a dark gem in a baguette cut.

"Your gem is black… that's", she cut him off.

"That's bad isn't it?", she sounded concerned.

"Dark is not evil, a black soul gem is capable of holding all kinds of souls, both animal and sapient, at the risk of sounding overly dramatic…I sense great power in you, have you summoned your weapon yet?", her response was to draw a double ended staff from her arm. It was dark as her gem, and crystalline in structure, with one end similar to a restoration staff, and the other similar to an illusion staff, "Great power indeed".

"And you want me to join your army?", this was the question that the entire conversation had been leading to. He almost wondered if she sensed that he had already failed in this endeavor once today.

"That was the original idea, the choice is yours however. I won't lie, the path me and my comrades walk is lined with death, usually the deaths of others. I sometimes have to take three showers to wash all the gunk that used to be a person off of me. We fight the guilty to protect the innocent, and they almost never surrender peacefully. If you choose not to fight I will not fault you, but war is coming, and we fail, a lot of innocent people are going to die, entire worlds full.", the longer he talked, the more his gaze morphed into a thousand yard stare.

"What about the other gem, what did she choose?", she asked.

"Stahlrim has chosen to abstain", he said blankly.

"I want to be with her, I think, she may be only other person who truly understands the nature of my existence", she said her tone apologetic,

"Yeah, that's understandable", he set down the empty tea mug, and got up from the table, "can you do me a favor though, come back to Big Mountain sometime, you are the sentient embodiment of all my life's research"

"Sure", she said, then smiled


End file.
